Yahoo star is born

Carol Bartz was only on the line for about 15 minutes, taking a few questions from analysts and reporters before heading to a management meeting. But during her brief conference call, she made a definite impression. Bartz's first word was - what else? - "Yahoo!"; and she asked everybody for some "friggin’ breathing room." Kara Swisher at Boomtown likes her style ("a tough-talking, take-no-prisoners CEO for a company that needs one desperately"). Of course, Bartz is not exactly a household name - she had been CEO of the computer-aided design company Autodesk – and that has some techies already wondering whether they could have done better (y'mean better than Jerry Yang?). Among Bartz’s many tasks will be to figure out what to do with the company’s Santa Monica offices – not to mention its Hollywood ambitions. Seems like a long time ago.